Get tired of typing some of the same things over and over on your iPhone? Never fear, keyboard shortcuts are here! I use keyboard shortcuts for things like my personal information, common phrases, long URLs, etc.

Let's use my name as an example - instead of typing "Landon J. Harris" each time I need to insert my name, I just type "mynn" and iPhone (iPad/iPod Touch) expands this text into my name. It's easy to setup, and you can create many shortcuts. This works starting with iOS 5, and now with iCloud will sync across devices; there's no need to enter your shortcuts on each device. Also, with the launch of OS X Maverick, these shortcuts will sync to your Mac too.

Text Expansion with iOS

Go to Settings

Tap General

Tap Keyboard

Tap Shortcuts (at the bottom)

Tap the "+" in the top right corner

In the Phrase field enter the full phrase you want, in my example this is "Landon J. Harris"

In the shortcut field enter the snippet of text you want to expand into the phrase, "myaa"

Tap Save

Here are some of my favorite uses and the shortcuts I use. Leave comments with some of the phrases you use.